About OLX

OLX Lebanon is the #1 marketplace for selling and buying online in Lebanon. Our aim is to upgrade people’s lives by facilitating deals and identifying attractive opportunities for individuals and businesses. Our broader vision is to strengthen local economies, empower small businesses and help everyone in making smarter choices for themselves, the market and the planet.

OLX Lebanon is part of EMPG, one of the few unicorns in the Middle East region with presence in more than 50 cities across geographies and more than 4,500 employees under different brands including OLX, Dubizzle, Bayut, Zameen, Mubawab, bproperty, Lamudi, Sector Labs and Kaidee.

We are proud to be different, and we work differently too. We combine the spirit and agility of a start-up with the maturity that comes from being part of a 100-year-old company.

We are curious, ambitious and allergic to corporate interference. We improvise, experiment and push each other further, embracing uncertainty and driving change.

As a Head of Engineering you will be leading OLX Egypt and Lebanon engineering organisation. You will coach and grow Tech Leads and work with your team of 20+ engineers to shape the future of our main. You will define the engineering roadmap including budgeting and as a key member of our strategy team you will also contribute and shape the overall OLX strategy. 

A Head of Engineering is an expert in building great teams by understanding the dynamics of the teams and harnessing strengths of each team member to make them an efficient unit. She/He understands and believes in our core values and is a proponent of empowering the team to make the right decisions.  

What will you be doing?

• Gather up-to-date and in-depth understanding of our code base and technologies and of industry trends;
• Ability to actively contribute in our code base and lead by example;
• Provide and share a broad knowledge of technologies and architectures and function as a mentor within the scope of your product stream and with the rest of the teams and packs;
• Ensure that we always deliver software of the highest standards;
• Promote best coding standards, guidelines and best practices;
• Demonstrate technical leadership and mentorship by setting challenging but realistic goals and guiding the team efforts towards successful project delivery;
• Monitor the performance of team members. Identify and encourage areas for growth and personal development;
• Manage day-to-day operational aspects of a project and scope;
• Create optimal working environment and methodologies for the assigned product team.
• Impact on the direction and scope of our technical vision within your stream;
• Shaping strong cross-functional packs in line with business needs;
• Collaborating closely with Product, Infrastructure, Design, UX, CLM and Strategy to deliver highest quality products;
• Hiring A-players to build High Performing Teams, constantly raising the bar of engineering talent;
• Owning our business KPIs as a conduit to our Product team and business functions;

Who are we looking for?

Practical / Technical knowledge:

• In-depth understanding of free and open-source software development, e.g. PHP, Python, Javascript, Java, etc;
• In-depth understanding of free and open-source web application frameworks, e.g. Symfony, Laravel, Django, etc.
• Knowledgeable of scalability and high availability systems;
• Source code control, build process management, continuous integration, automated testing and other development process;
• Knowledge of UML diagrams, code, unit tests, etc;
• Good understanding of leadership, coaching and mentoring principles;
• Understanding of good product, design and UX principles;

Planning, organizing and integrating (managerial) knowledge:

• Leadership skills;
• Analytical thinking;
• Project management;
• Conceptual thinking;
• Detail oriented.
• People Management
• Communicating and influencing skills
• Excellent communication & interpersonal skills.

Job Requirements/Experience:

• 8+ years of back-end, front-end and/or mobile applications software engineering experience;
• Experience working on high-traffic and large-scale web products;
• Experience with Agile Methodologies such as Kanban, Scrum and XP;
• Technical leadership and mentorship experience is a must;
• Experience in analysis, design, coding and implementation of next generation web applications in PHP and Python;
• Proven track record for timely project delivery and project management;
• Drive for innovation and insight into new and old technologies;

Problem solving (thinking environment and challenge):

• Ability to prioritize tasks and quickly adjust in a rapidly changing environment.

Accountability (freedom to act, scope and impact):

• Maintain and ensure optimal software quality within the assigned product;
• Mentor and develop a product team of excellent front end, back end and mobile engineers that deliver high-quality code;
• Deliver on product vertical team KPIs and objectives in line with the overall company’s objectives;
• Be accountable for the attrition rate of his team and the department;
• Coach individuals in the team to become the next wave of leaders;

Education and training:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent field.

Language:

• English is a must;